Our team brings a track record of leadership in gifted education, experience on multiple research projects, and expertise in recognizing and responding to advanced potential with curriculum and instruction. We also have extensive experience in professional development and advanced skills in natural language processing, research methodologies, and content area instruction.
Senior Personnel
Dr. Catherine Little serves as the Principal Investigator and Project Director of Project Focus. She is a Professor in Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. She oversees the project, coordinating all activities in support of the project objectives and supervising the project team. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership with emphasis in Gifted Education Administration from The College of William and Mary in 2001. She was formerly also the Project Director for Project SPARK and Project LIFT, both of which were funded by the Javits program.
Dr. Kylie Anglin serves as the Co-Principal Investigator of Project Focus. She teaches graduate courses in research methods, data science, and text analytics. Her research develops methods for efficiently monitoring program implementation in impact evaluations using natural language processing techniques, as well as methods for improving the causal validity and replicability of impact estimates. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Prevention Science, AERA Open, and Evaluation Review. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where she participated in the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) Pre-doctoral Training Program and received an NAEd/Spencer dissertation fellowship.
Project Consultants
Dr. Rebecca O’Brien is an Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies in Education, the Director for the Center for Gifted Education, and the Program Director for Gifted Education and Equitable Instruction at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Her work primarily focuses on and encouraging high potential in students from diverse backgrounds, improving teacher preparation, aligning instruction to assessment, and supporting in-service teacher learning and instruction. Prior to becoming a professor, she served as a math, science, and robotics teacher in an urban middle school.
Staff Members
Lisa Muller serves as the Executive Program Director for Project Focus. She obtained her Master’s Degree in Forensic Psychology in 2003 and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Connecticut. She has coordinated multiple previous grants through the Neag Center and the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, including Project SPARK and several other Javits grants. Her primary responsibilities include coordination and planning of project activities, including organizing project materials, arranging professional development efforts, and managing other logistical aspects of the project, as well as providing support for budget management.
Siamak Vahidi maintains the project’s shared online discussion space and provides assistance with technology. He also provides support for the collection and editing of video segments for professional development and research purposes.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Brittney Hernandez (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation (RMME) program, with a specialization in measurement. Brittney has worked in the lab for the past seven years doing measurement and evaluation work. Brittney’s interests are in survey design, data analytics, & visualization. She believes research and evaluation are both a storytelling process and rigorous survey data allow us to tell credible stories. Brittney is particularly interested in how language on surveys can impact the responses that people give. She spends most of her time developing surveys and analyzing survey data. She brings experience using RStudio and RShiny to create interactive data visualizations.
Graduate Assistants
Kelly Dausel-McGehee is a first-year doctoral student at the Renzulli Center. Previously, she taught gifted learners in middle school in Virginia for 21 years. She holds a National Board Certification in Social Studies and History for Early Adolescents. She completed her MA in Educational Psychology through the Three Summers Program at UConn and her BA in Middle Grades Education at Greensboro College. Currently, she works as a graduate assistant on Project EAGLE, which explores improving identification of traditionally underserved learners, as well as Project Focus which is concerned with teacher efficacy for high-level discourse, with her advisor, Catherine Little. Her personal research interests include early adolescent learner engagement through inquiry and creativity, promoting excellence throughout diverse populations.
Casey Hogan is a third-year doctoral student at University of Connecticut’s Renzulli Center for Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent Development. Before coming to UConn, Casey was a teacher and instructional coach in New York City for fifteen years. She received her B.A. from Duke University in psychology and Spanish and holds a master’s degree in psychology in education from Teachers College and a master’s in teaching from Empire State College. Casey’s research interests include curriculum and instruction, urban education, and giftedness in underserved populations.
Shannon McDonald holds a B.A. in English Literature, a two-year post-baccalaureate certificate in secondary education, and a M.A.T in Gifted Education & Equitable instruction. As former English/language arts public school educator in Washington State, Shannon’s desire to support the needs of advanced learners was realized when working with students in a highly capable contained classroom setting. Currently she works on Project Focus and volunteers with the Connecticut Association for the Gifted.
Hima Raveendran is a graduate student in the Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation (RMME) program at the University of Connecticut. She currently works as a research graduate assistant on Project Focus under the guidance of her advisor, Dr. Kylie Anglin. She holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Physics, a baccalaureate degree in Education, and a Master’s degree in Physics. Her academic background is complemented by her professional experience as a secondary school physics educator, where she developed a deep interest in teaching methodologies and educational measurements. Her research interests include text analytics, science education, and the evaluation of classroom strategies
Jimmy Wilson is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology at UConn’s Renzulli Center for Creativity, Talent Development and Gifted Education. He has taught creative writing, English, and ESL in rural and urban Title 1 schools in Texas for the past decade and has his M.Ed. from Southern Methodist University. He currently works on Project Focus, investigating high quality discourse, and as the emerging scholar in residence for the podcast Fueling Creativity in Education. He is also a fellow for NSF TRANSCEND educational neuroscience PhD training program. At 6’8” he is easy to spot and always willing to chat about his research interests on creativity, equity, and neurodiversity, or his adorable dog, Luke.